After spending a few years plugging Google+ into all of its services -- even as users of those services complained -- Google is rolling that back. It started by breaking outPhotos and Hangouts, and now YouTube is taking a turn by reverting the system that's been in place since late 2013. In a blog post, we learn that "soon" you will no longer need a Google+ account to upload, comment or create a channel, and even if you're just a viewer, your comments on YouTube won't appear on Google+ (or the other way around). YouTube is just one of the first products making this change, so you can expect it to stretch across the rest of Google as well. If you want to ditch your Google+ account now that it's no longer a requirement, another blog post says it will make doing that easier too (but don't try it right now -- we'll tell you when).

During a keynote speech tonight at the 6th annual Vidcon event, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced a new version of its mobile app. Available on Android and mobile web browsers now (iOS coming soon), it makes it easier for creators to publish and edit directly in the app, and easier for viewers to subscribe to a channel with just one button touch (and with ten million of those touches, channel owners can earn the new Diamond play button reward). The redesign even puts your subscriptions and profile right at the top for easy access. This is also the version that adds the ability to watch those vertical videos in full screen, so expect that to come your way soon if you don't have it already.

Update: An update to the iOS app is out that brings fullscreen vertical video support to your iPhone too.

Susanne Daniels is exiting her post as programming chief at MTV to join YouTube in a newly created position leading the platform's budding original content efforts.

As vice president of YouTube originals, Daniels will oversee development and production of content for the world's highest-trafficked video source. The move isn't expected to be a major shift in programming strategy for Google-owned YouTube, which is already pretty far along in its plan to expand its originals.

The Associated Press has teamed up with British Movietone to share more than a century's worth of newsreel footage with the denizens of the internet. The pair will upload more than a million minutes of archival clips to YouTube with the intention of creating a "view-on-demand visual encyclopedia" for the world. The 550,000-plus stories range from footage of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake through to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It's not the first time that a news organization has used YouTube to take its archives online. Last year, British Pathé uploaded more than 85,000 newsreel clips from between 1896 and 1976 to the site. Users can feel free to embed the clips in whatever story they're working on, but we assume that re-editing the work isn't permitted. Which is a shame, because we were hoping for some cheeky dance remixes of the footage of Prince Charles getting frisky at the Rio Carnival. Which, for no reason at all, we've embedded below...

There comes a time in every person's life when they realize that they can't get people behave properly. As much as we all might want to stop people from recording vertical videos, the Periscopes and Snapchats of this world have made these clips so prevalent that, sadly, they're just not going to go away. Giving in to the inevitable, YouTube's Android App is getting the ability to play vertical videos in full screen, rather than constraining them to an awkward letterbox designed for landscape clips. The feature was found by AndroidPolice in version 10.28 of the app, which is likely to hit Google Play at some point in the near future. Before you sprint to download the APK ahead of its official launch, however, just remember that this means that the bad guys have won.

Google's bringing a paid-for subscription service to YouTube next year, but don't expect the company to sign a deal with a TV studio for some exclusive content. Instead, the site is going to see if its wide stable of home-grown talent will provide enough of a draw for you to fork over several bucks from your paycheck each month. According to Bloomberg, almost all of YouTube's biggest names, including PewDiePie and Smosh have already signed up to be a part of the new offering when it goes live.

It's a strange day when a YouTube star named CaptainSparklez gets bigger billing in a headline than the co-founder of Activision, but here we are.

YouTube phenom CaptainSparklez, whose real name is Jordan Maron, has partnered with Activision co-founder Howard Marks to develop Fortress Fury, a competitive mobile game. Maron and Marks operate at seemingly opposite ends of the video game industry, but working together, they've found common ground and cultivated more than 1 million downloads of Fortress Fury in its first few weeks on iOS and Android. In a video interview, the unlikely duo tell us how they first met (Grandmother Sparklez makes an appearance), and how the industry is evolving with crowdfunding, YouTube and eSports.

YouTube may be one of the big reasons to ditch conventional TV, but that isn't stopping the National Geographic Channel from putting YouTube on TV. The network is airing Generation YouTube, a documentary on the origins and cultural impact of the streaming video site, on July 11th (tonight, if you're reading this soon enough) at 10PM Eastern. As you can see in the teaser clip, the show underscores YouTube's very humble beginnings -- it was going to be an online dating site at one point, and it didn't take off until it embraced that upload-what-you-want philosophy. If you've wondered how YouTube got to the point where it's creating internet memes and supporting whole careers, you'll probably want to tune in.

Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, made a lot of money last year. His company, PewDiePie Productions, brought in about $7 million in revenue, mainly off of Kjellberg's YouTube videos where he plays video games and reacts in silly ways. With those videos, he's also raised more than $1 million for charity over the years. Kjellberg has 37.7 million subscribers on YouTube and about 9 billion views overall -- considering that he receives ad revenue based on the number of views his videos get, it's not surprising that he's making serious bank. However, When news of Kjellberg's revenue hit the 'net, quite a few people responded with anger, outrage or thinly veiled jealousy, as they do any time that PewDiePie's revenue goes public. This year, Kjellberg made a video addressing the money issue, including a brief description of his not-so-glamorous life before YouTube.

Sony is launching a new app that'll let you broadcast streams of your Android gaming to the internet, straight from your smartphone. Screen Recorder has been built to connect to both Twitch and YouTube's Twitch-like live service, letting everyone across the world watch as you play mobile Minecraft. The app works with the company's Xperia Z3+, Z4 and Z4v, as well as the Xperia Z4 tablet that we reviewed last week. It's certainly a big coup for Sony as it continues to revive its formerly-flagging mobile division, since Twitch's spectator-onlymobile app has nearly 35 million installs. Tempting even a small proportion of mobile gamers to buy a Sony smartphone would do some impressive things to the bottom line.

Last year around this time, word got out that Felix Kjellberg, a 24-year-old Swedish bro known online as PewDiePie, made $4 million a year by playing video games, recording his reactions and uploading the resulting videos to YouTube. At the time, he had 27 million YouTube subscribers. Today, Kjellberg has 37.7 million subscribers on YouTube and his company, PewDiePie Productions, pulled in roughly $7.4 million in revenue in 2014, according to Swedish newspaper Expressen. It looks like this whole "watch people play video games on the internet" craze is here to stay.

Facebook's shiny logo isn't all that's new for the social network today: The outfit's also announced how it plans to split video ad revenue with publishers. Like YouTube, Facebook will give content creators 55 percent of ad revenue and keep the rest, according to Fortune. Early publishing partners include Funny or Die, Fox Sports, Hearst and the NBA. And if you're curious about how ads will work with video, it doesn't seem like you'll have to worry about them auto-playing loud and proud while you're scrolling through your news feed on mobile. On the handheld platform, when you tap a clip you'll go to a different screen with "Suggested Videos" and once your selected video finishes, an ad will play before the next one's served up.

Google's been systematically rolling out high frame rate (HFR) video -- that's 60 frames per second -- across its YouTube ecosystem for a couple of months now. HFR debuted on standard videos last October. It hit YT's live streaming service in May and today Google announced that the YouTube mobile app for both iOS and Android will now feature 60 FPS playback. Now you'll be able to follow Far Cry 4 walkthroughs on your mobile device with the same silky smooth playback that you see on your TV.

YouTube's always placed huge levels of importance on its community, starting with the people who regularly upload content to the platform. Now, to make things better for video creators, the Google-owned service has revealed a list of features that are in the works. Most notably, YouTube is set to introduce a new ranking system for comments; improved, more customizable notifications for subscribers; and the ability for channel owners to manage their videos settings, like monetization options, from the mobile app. YouTube says it will also be enhancing its 360-degree video and live-streaming features, with the goal being to let creators easily setup and manage those tools.

When Sky announced the launch of a new Kids section on its set-top boxes, it immediately put Google and Netflix in its crosshairs. On-demand TV shows and movies were suddenly front and centre on the homepage, allowing children to select up to 4,000 episodes from cartoons like SpongeBob Squarepants, Ben 10, Adventure Time and Dora The Explorer when the company is done adding them all. It appears that was just the start though: Sky is now embracing mobile and will launch a dedicated kids app for smartphones and tablets.

YouTube might have Music Key in its hat (sort of), but apparently it's having issues locking down deals for the proposed ad-free subscription service that'd cover the rest of its media. Google's video wing is having troubles getting content creators onboard with the service, according to The Information. As the site's sources tell it, YouTube has even threatened to set certain channels to private so the videos therein won't show up in searches. That's if the creators don't play ball, of course. YouTube tried strong-arming indie musicians in a similar way last year. The Information notes that where the biggest difficulties might lie would be with TV networks that have a presence on the video portal because plenty of them are already married to the likes of Hulu for subscription content. All in all, if you were holding out for ad-free YouTube -- at a nominal fee -- you're going to be waiting a bit longer.

BBC Radio 1 is struggling to keep young listeners tuned in. The station's audience has shrunk to its smallest size in over a decade, but the BBC believes it has a strategy: expanding Radio 1 beyond traditional broadcasting. That means embracing YouTube, iPlayer and now, bite-sized mobile apps. The BBC is breaking out Newsbeat into a standalone app for iOS and Android, repackaging many of the stories it currently runs on the web. The design consists of three feeds -- Latest, Popular and Topics -- and individual news reports are shown as cards with large, bold photos. The BBC says it's aiming the app at 16- to 24-year-olds and will be focused on entertainment news, interviews and social trends. While it's true that millennials spend a lot of time on their phones, the broadcaster could have a tough time drawing their attention away from apps like Snapchat.

At the Paris Air Show earlier this week, Boeing showed off a few of its 787-9 Dreamliner's tricks, including a near vertical takeoff. This new YouTube video shows the flight demo from several angles: one has the fuel-efficient plane in full view, another gives you the chance to watch what went on inside the cockpit and the last one shows the flight from the plane's perspective. YouTube launched multiple camera angles as an experimental feature earlier this year, making the option available to select users. It uses an algorithm that syncs all the angles as you play the video, and you only have to either click on any of them or press their respective numbers on the keyboard to switch views.

The massive amounts of video on YouTube makes it tough to tell if the video you're watching is legit, or an elaborate hoax. So, in a bid to make the streaming video site more useful for people who want accurate information, Google just announced YouTube Newswire, a curated feed of verified eyewitness videos. The search giant is partnering with News Corp-owned Storyful, a startup focused on surfacing accurate social content, for the site. Google's also teaming up with experts from organizations like Eyewitness Media Hub, Reported.ly and Verification Junkie to create the First Draft Coalition, a site that will offer tools and training for journalists to help determine the veracity of videos and the ethics of using them. Basically, Google is finally helping journalists and news junkies make sense of everything on YouTube. It's not enough to just offer the world a mountain of content these days, Google has to highlight the best of what YouTube has to offer.

We're sure a time will come when watching something in 4K won't seem special. Now isn't that time. Astronaut Terry W. Virts is tweeting links to videos shot in Ultra HD during his time on the International Space Station, and predictably it's mesmerizing. NASA started uploading videos in the higher resolution to YouTube a few days ago, with a 20 second tease at 60 fps, before publishing a far more satisfying (but regular frame rate) four-minute follow up. The agency claims the extra detail in the videos will "provide new insight into the vast array of experiments taking place every day." But, it also humble-boasts that these are possibly some of the "most breathtaking" views of our planet, and the ISS (and a floating taco) yet. This comes not long after we were equally dazzled with GoPro footage of a bonefide spacewalk. Whatever NASA's video strategy is for the ISS (it hints there's more to come), we're liking it so far.

Vessel launched as a YouTube alternative with exclusive early access to ad-free content for $3 a month. Beginning today, it's available for Android in beta form. The service launched in March for iOS with videos from A&E, Rheet & Link, Unbox Therapy, Warner Music Group and others. While most of the content is available for free, subscribers get early access to select videos and an ad-free experience. To help it become a destination for impatient video fans, the company has been attempting to lure YouTube stars away from the Google-owned video site. Now it just needs to lure eyeballs away.

Sure, 360-degree video is practically old news at this point, but we've never seen an example that works as well as this. To coincide with the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race, Nismo (Nissan's motorsports division) has uploaded a 360-degree lap of Circuit de la Sarthe, the course that plays venue to the contest. Although it's probably more immersive on your PC or laptop, we'd recommend also watching it through the YouTube app on your phone or tablet, as you'll be able to use your device's gyroscope to move the camera in any direction you chose.

We haven't even had a chance to fill our homes with 4K TVs and already YouTube is moving on to 8K. To get an early jump on the coming wave of mega-high resolution videos, Dubai360 says that it has posted the world's first 8K 360-degree video. World's first or not, it's mesmerizing to watch a 24-hour time-lapse video of a busy airport that you can spin in 360 degrees. The video was created using 88,000 individual shots to create four time-lapse videos. Those videos were then stitched together into a single spin-at-your-will extravaganza. Like its earlier 360-degree time lapse from atop Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, Dubai360's airport video requires multiple viewings to really get the whole experience.

For awhile, the rumor was that Google would buy Twitch. That didn't happen (Amazon did that instead), but that doesn't mean it's given up on gaming. Today at an event held in YouTube Space LA, the company is taking the wrapper off its very own video game-centric effort called, appropriately enough, YouTube Gaming. It's both an app and a website and is designed to put YouTube's gaming content front and center. More than 25,000 games will have their own dedicated page and each page will feature videos and live streams related to that particular title. And if you're really into, say, The Witcher 3, you can add that game into your "collection" to keep up on the latest videos.Slideshow-296589